Who Are the Best Hubs?

[Grimmas]

Which wrestlers are the best ones to look at that will give you the biggest look into many candidates?

For example, if you were to watch a bunch of Kobashi, you'd get your AJPW folks in, then some NOAH candidates. He's not a bad person to pick as a hub to explore with, but who are really the best?

If you were to pick one person to watch that would give you a glimpse into so many other great candidates, who would that be?

[soup23]

Hansen is first person that came to mind. Have the WWWF stuff, Puerto Rico, AWA, NJPW candidates like Inoki, Andre match, AJPW 80s and 90s and then even candidates like Luger with the WCW stuff. 

[elliott]

Tenryu is the first that comes to mind for me. He gets you to basically everyone in Japan except for Maeda and Rikidozan. 

[Kadaveri]

I know 'Ric Flair' is a boring answer at this point, but he really does have a match on tape with the majority of non-Lucha candidates right from the 1970s to the early 00s, and you know his opponent will be bringing their A Game most of the time because they're wrestling the NWA World Champ or at least a legend in a big match. I also think there's more variety in his matches than a lot of people think. Some of them are his 'formula' match, but that also usually tells you that his opponent wasn't a top worker at the time (or at least Flair didn't consider them to be), but then there's matches like the Ricky Morton or Wahoo McDaniel matches which are completely different and are essentially showcases.

In a lot of ways Daniel Bryan is the spiritual successor to Ric Flair, he covers this ground from the early 00s onwards (including the lack of Lucha opponents...)

A less obvious candidate for this I'd say would be Roderick Strong, who I'm gonna be pushing as a Top 100 guy later on. He's not as good a wrestler as Bryan or Flair but he has consistently been having very good-great matches in numerous promotions for about 15 years now.

A similar guy to Kenta Kobashi but for a later time period is Jun Akiyama. He's right there through most of 90s All Japan but he's also a (though never the) top guy in NOAH throughout the 90s and most recently has had recent runs in All Japan and DDT as well. The fact that he's never been anything less than 'good' pretty much his entire career is a bonus too

Mick Foley will get you across 90s WCW, ECW and WWE plus a bit of Japan as well. He has a nice habit of turning up in promotions just as their in-ring was getting better.

These are some more names if you're looking at a specific promotion/era.

Post-2005 WWE men - John Cena or Rey Mysterio

2000-2005 WWE (weird transitional time) - Eddie Guerrero

1996-00 WWE - Mick Foley

WWE "Women's Revolution" era - Sasha Banks

1995-01 WCW - Diamond Dallas Page

1991-95 WCW - Dustin Rhodes

ECW - Sabu

2002-2013 TNA - AJ Styles

2002-09 RoH - Bryan Danielson

2010-17 US Indies - Chris Hero

2001-10 US Indies - Low Ki

2010s UK & Ireland Indies - Will Ospreay

Post-2007 New Japan - Hiroshi Tanahashi

90s New Japan - Hiroshi Hase

90s All Japan - Kenta Kobashi

1974-91 All Japan - Jumbo Tsuruta

WOS - Steve Grey

Stardom - Mayu Iwatani

2001-2018 Joshi - Meiko Satomura

1993 - 2001 Joshi - Aja Kong

1980 - 1993 Joshi - Devil Masami

 

[Microstatistics]

Vader. 80s German wrestling, some AWA, late 80s/early-mid 90s NJPW, late 90s AJPW, early 2000s NOAH, mid 90s UWFi, early-mid 90s WCW, mid-late 90s WWF.

[El Boricua]

Terry Funk is another one that casts a wide net as a hub.

[Jmare007]

 

11 minutes ago, El Boricua said:

Terry Funk is another one that casts a wide net as a hub.

I was about to say Funk as well.

[Grimmas]

I present to you Asuka.

From a dead period in joshi, to Shimmer, to NXT/WWE, she's kind of been all over the place and gives glimpses to places that don't get enough love.

[cubbymark]

Randy Savage is another potential hub wrestler to consider. US Outlaw in his fathers promotion in the late 70s/early 80s. Memphis in 84/85, has some Puerto Rico stuff on tape. His WWF run from 85-93. His WCW run would have him on Worldwide and Pro wrestling the likes of Bunkhouse Buck on occasion. Has some random Japan matches on tape as well, including a match vs Jushin Liger who he gives 85% of the match to. 

[JerryvonKramer]

I reckon if you watched every single Mike Jackson match on tape you’d have an extremely good idea about what most of the 80s guys could do.

[NintendoLogic]

Rick Rude. Worked Memphis, World Class, Crockett, 80s WWF, early 90s AJPW/NJPW, and early 90s WCW and faced a lot of the top guys in each spot.

[Rah]

Who do we have for lucha, Negro Casas? It has to be him due to his longevity, surely?

 

[Alex]

Satanico is a good one.

[Rah]

23 hours ago, Alex said:

Satanico is a good one.

Definitely fills in the gap Casas leaves behind - especially in the 80s - but Casas covers 3+ decades of performers in the bigger companies and about 11 years now of indy scrubs that probably should get a better look.

[elliott]

I asked about a good Billy Robinson brawl over in Billy's thread and Matt was quick to come in with an Billy Robinson vs Abdullah match. Its funny because when I made that request for a Billy brawl, I almost included a the thought "He must've had an interesting match with Abdullah at some point." 

Abdullah has become, perhaps not a "Hub" for me, but one of the best "control groups" out there. In the last few months I've watched Abby against Kintaro Oki, the Destroyer, Giant Baba and Terry Funk. I will watch this Robinson match today. They're all pretty similar but also just a little different based on what the opponent can do. Its interesting to see the various approaches people take with Abdullah because you basically know what you're getting from Abby and he's such a singular character. 

[mmcoor]

keji mutoh, you get everyone he worked with in the west, 90s njpw, 2000s ajpw, wrestle-1, and noah

[mmcoor]

you also have aja kong, kana/asuka, flair, suzuki, tanaka, and somoa joe

[Tetsujin]

For WWE, it has to be Undertaker.